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on History and Philosophy of Economics |
| By: | Rémi Jardat (ISTEC - Institut supérieur des Sciences, Techniques et Economie Commerciales - ISTEC, CNAM Paris - Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers - Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (CNAM)) |
| Abstract: | Purpose: This critique of Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century summarizes and comments on the main tenets of the author's principal theory. Our aim is to point out the book's contributions to critical debate around social and economic issues, while giving special emphasis to its theoretical and epistemological relevance for management science. Design/methodology/approach: Based on a careful reading of the book, in the original French and English translation versions, we explore Piketty's arguments and proposals, and attempt to place his "scholarly discourse" in relation to Marx's "worldview" as well as the philosophy of the Enlightenment. Findings: The book's potential impact over the long run is extremely high, ostensibly enough to make it as important as Marx's work but relying on a decidedly different method and philosophy. We also consider the strong complementariness between this work and that of Pierre Rosanvallon in the field of political science. Some similarities with Fukuyama's approach are also considered, but on a much lesser note. Research limitations/implications: The question of unemployment, which is given little attention in Piketty's work, is not addressed here. Social applications: In contrast with Piketty's book, this paper intends to find social application only within the microcosm of the scholarly community. Originality/value: We hope to draw a link between the book's contribution to economic thinking and its philosophical underpinnings, that is, by presenting a reading that is both a positivist assessment and an attempt to decipher underlying assumptions. |
| Keywords: | Piketty, Capital, Marxism, Enlightenment, Rosanvallon, Wallerstein |
| Date: | 2014–05–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00990772&r=hpe |
| By: | Meacci, Ferdinando |
| Abstract: | ABSTRACT The controversies between Ricardo and Malthus reached a new peak when Malthus published his pamphlet The Measure of Value Stated and Illustrated and Ricardo responded by his critical Notes on Malthus’s ‘Measure of Value’ (1823 [1992]) and by a further round of correspondence with Malthus (Works, IX). The new (and final) stage of these controversies was concerned with the two authors’ conflicting theories of value and, within these theories, with the excruciating issue of the invariable measure of value. Starting from some insights provided by Malthus and Ricardo in their major or final contributions, this paper deals with a rather neglected component of their controversies, i.e. with the theory of the value of labour as distinct from the value of its products. This will be done by highlighting two sets of ambiguities which affect both Ricardo’s and Malthus’s arguments. One of these hinges on the ambiguity conveyed by the word labour in so far as this reflects the three different concepts of labour power, living labour and dead labour. The other set hinges on the different ambiguity conveyed by the word value especially when it comes to the value of labour. For this word was used in those controversies (as well as in other parts of classical theory) to convey not only the two elementary concepts of use-value and exchangeable-value but also, within the former concept, the two further concepts of the (positive) use-value of labour from the standpoint of its employer, and of the (negative) use-value (disutility) of labour from the standpoint of the labourer. The latter is the sense in which Smith’s ambiguous notion of the “value of labour to the labourer” and his related corollary of the constant “price” of labour (WN, I,V,7-8) must be understood if his system of thought (including its crucial notion of value as labour command) is to stand against Malthus’s misleading attempt to protect it from Ricardo’s criticisms. In this sense, Malthus’s attempt and Ricardo’s criticisms may be jointly regarded as a result of their common error of understanding the value of labour exclusively in the sense of its exchangeable value (which is rightly regarded by Ricardo as –normally- varying and wrongly assumed in Malthus’s Measure of Value as –strangely- constant). |
| Keywords: | Smith, Ricardo, Malthus, value of labour |
| JEL: | B12 B2 B22 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:55948&r=hpe |
| By: | Pedro Garcia Duarte; Yann Giraud |
| Abstract: | Some historians argue that the history of economic thought (HET) is useful and important to economists and that historians should remain in economics departments. Others believe that historians’ initiatives toward economists are doomed in advance to failure and that they should instead ally themselves with historians and sociologists of science located in humanities departments. Generally, the contributions that are devoted to reviewing the state of HET take a firm side for either one of these two positions and therefore have a prescriptive view on how history should be written. By contrast, our paper proposes a descriptive account of the kind of contributions to HET that have been published in major economics journals over the past two decades. To avoid definitional issues over HET, we use the B category of the JEL classification to retrieve and analyze the relevant literature. We show that, though contributions to HET are still found in top economics journals, the rate of publication of such papers has become increasingly uneven and the methods and narrative styles they adopt are increasingly remote from that advocated in the sub-disciplinary literature. For this reason, historians who are still willing to address the economics’ community should be more interested in expanding the frontiers of their field rather than in trying to anticipate their targeted readers’ preferences.. |
| Keywords: | history of economics; economics journals; American Economic Review; Journal of Economic Literature; Journal of Economic Perspectives; Economic Journal |
| JEL: | B20 A14 B40 B29 |
| Date: | 2014–05–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spa:wpaper:2014wpecon6&r=hpe |
| By: | Güth, Werner (Max Planck Institute of Economics); Levati, Vittoria (University of Verona); Montinari, Natalia (Department of Economics, Lund University); Nardi, Chiara (University of Verona) |
| Abstract: | In the hybrid game, one proposer confronts two responders with veto power: one responder can condition his decisions on his own offer but the other cannot. We vary what the informed responder knows about the offers as well as the uninformed responder's conflict payoff. Neither variation affects behavior: proposers always favor informed responders, who frequently accept minimal offers. |
| Keywords: | Ultimatum; Yes/No game |
| JEL: | C72 C92 |
| Date: | 2014–05–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2014_016&r=hpe |
| By: | Volker Britz (ETH Zurich, Switzerland); P. Jean-Jacques Herings (Maastricht University, Netherlands); Arkadi Predtetchinski (Maastricht University, Netherlands) |
| Abstract: | We consider a class of perfect information bargaining games with unanimity acceptance rule. The proposer and the order of responding players are determined by the state that evolves stochastically over time. The probability distribution of the state in the next period is determined jointly by the current state and the identity of the player who rejected the current proposal. This protocol encompasses a vast number of special cases studied in the literature. We show that subgame perfect equilibria in pure stationary strategies need not exist. When such equilibria do exist, they may exhibit delay. Limit equilibria (as the players become infinitely patient) need not be unique. |
| Keywords: | Strategic Bargaining; Subgame Perfect Equilibrium; Stationary Strategies; Nash Bargaining Solution. |
| JEL: | C72 C78 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eth:wpswif:14-196&r=hpe |
| By: | Ron N. Borkovsky; Paul B. Ellickson; Brett R. Gordon; Victor Aguirregabiria; Gardete Pedro |
| Abstract: | Empirical models of strategic games are central to much analysis in marketing and economics. However, two challenges in applying these models to real world data are that such models often admit multiple equilibria and that they require strong informational assumptions. The first implies that the model does not make unique predictions about the data, and the second implies that results may be driven by strong a priori assumptions about the informational setup. This article summarizes recent work that seeks to address both issues and suggests some avenues for future research. |
| Keywords: | Empirical games; Structural estimation; Multiple Equilibria; Biased Beliefs; Information structures; Learning in games; Identification |
| JEL: | C51 C72 C73 |
| Date: | 2014–05–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-510&r=hpe |
| By: | Joaquín Días (Universidad de la República (Uruguay). Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y de Administración. Instituto de Economía) |
| Abstract: | The present paper examines the empirical literature on the Economics of Happiness with the aim both to comparatively evaluate the state of the art in Latin America, and to propose a research hypothesis able to contribute to the improvement of the understanding of the determinants of happiness in our continent. On the basis of both the empirical research made in developed countries, particularly the work of Stutzer (2004) about Switzerland, and the work of Graham and Pettinato (2002) about Peru, we elaborate an explaining hypothesis of the Easterlin Paradox for Latin America, one that tries to achieve the same level of complexity of Stutzer’s (2004) hypothesis, which combines in one and the same proposal the three theoretical explanations of the Easterlin Paradox proposed in the literature. Our hypothesis implies to include as a determinant of the happiness equation one component of relative income, which in turn includes, together with a social comparison mechanism, a subjective evaluation, as to the future prospect of personal income, of the risks and opportunities coming from the interplay between some personal characteristics (such as age, educational level, place of residence, relative income level, gender, etc.) and some characteristics of the economic context (such as the unemployment rate, the poverty rate, the Human Development Index, the Gini Index, etc.) Such a hypothesis entails to test a happiness equation which includes an element of social comparison of the Hirschman-type (Hirschman 1973), and some elements coming from de so called macroeconomics of happiness. The available evidence on the Economics of Happiness in Latin America supports the plausibility of the proposed hypothesis. |
| Keywords: | income, happiness |
| JEL: | D01 D31 D60 I31 |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulr:wpaper:dt-14-13&r=hpe |
| By: | Blanco, Mariana; Engelmann, Dirk; Koch, Alexander K.; Normann, Hans-Theo |
| Abstract: | In empirical analyses of games, preferences and beliefs are typically treated as independent. However, if beliefs and preferences interact, this may have implications for the interpretation of observed behavior. Our sequential social dilemma experiment allows us to separate different interaction channels. When subjects play both roles in such experiments, a positive correlation between first- and second-mover behavior is frequently reported. We find that the observed correlation primarily originates via an indirect channel, where second-mover decisions influence beliefs through a consensus effect, and the first-mover decision is a best response to these beliefs. Specifically, beliefs about second-mover cooperation are biased toward own second-mover behavior, and most subjects best respond to stated beliefs. However, we also find evidence for a direct, preference-based channel. When first movers know the true probability of second-mover cooperation, subjects' own second moves still have predictive power regarding their first moves. -- |
| Keywords: | Beliefs,consensus effect,social dilemma,experimental economics |
| JEL: | C72 C90 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:dicedp:145&r=hpe |
| By: | Guillaume Allegre (OFCE); Xavier Timbeau (OFCE) |
| Abstract: | Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century proposes a critical analysis of the dynamics of capital accumulation. The book has several objectives: to present the historical dynamics of capital and its distribution up to the early twenty-first century; to offer a prospective analysis of these dynamics up to the end of this century; and, finally, to discuss policy measures that would make it possible to avoid the future it lays out. |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/4g0qd281j48jib2k4okap9f4eo&r=hpe |
| By: | Hamid Bouchikhi (Accounting / Management Control Department - ESSEC Business School); John R. Kimberly (University of Pennsylvania - University of Pennsylvania) |
| Abstract: | As of July 1, 2010, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of the Holy Spirit (UHS) has a single Department of Economics. However, in the seven prior years, there were two economics departments, one that was resolutely mainstream and the other that was just as resolutely heterodox. What accounts for this unusual organizational arrangement? We show that this arrangement was part of a protracted conflict about the kind of economics that befits the Catholic identity of UHS that resulted, ultimately, in a full embrace of mainstream economics in July 2010. We draw on and amend Oliver's (1991) typology of organizational responses to institutional processes and investigate why and how UHS went from deliberate avoidance to full acquiescence to mainstream economics. Our analysis suggests that while organizations may be compelled to adapt to dominant norms, as institutional theorists contend, the process of adaptation involves a variety of conflicting moves and counter moves that engage identity and power and that require forceful leadership to resolve. |
| Keywords: | Institutional Isomorphism ; Micro-processes ; Organizational Adaptation |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00993435&r=hpe |
| By: | Askari, Hossein; Iqbal, Zamir; Krichene, Noureddine; Mirakhor, Abbas |
| Abstract: | In this paper, the foundational rules governing human, economic and financial development in Islam, as understood from the Quran and from the life and traditions of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), are summarized. These rules pave the path to development as the basis of institutional structure, which in turn, underpin the path of economic and social progress. The essential elements in the life of a Muslim—the unity of creation, freedom and freedom of choice, economic and human development, economic system and financial practice—are developed. |
| Keywords: | Islam, Finance, Economics, Development |
| JEL: | O10 P40 P50 |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:56016&r=hpe |
| By: | Yoshihara, Naoki |
| Abstract: | This report explores the development of exploitation theory in mathematical Marxian economics by reviewing the main controversies surrounding the definition of exploitation since the contribution of Okishio (1963). The report first examines the robustness and economic implications of the debates on the Fundamental Marxian Theorem, developed mainly in the 1970s and 1980s, followed by the property relation theory of exploitation by Roemer (1982). Then, the more recent exploitation theory proposed by Vrousalis (2013) and Wright (2000) is introduced, before examining its economic implications using a simple economic model. Finally, the report introduces and comments on recent axiomatic studies of exploitation by focusing on the work of Veneziani and Yoshihara (2013a). |
| Keywords: | Fundamental Marxian Theorem, Property Relations Definition of Exploitation, Profit-Exploitation Correspondence Principle |
| JEL: | D63 D51 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hituec:607&r=hpe |
| By: | Lawrence C. Y. Choo (Department of Economics, University of Exeter) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the conventional wisdom that markets should allocate the rights for performing decisional tasks to those players who might be best suited to perform the task. I embed the decisional tasks in a stylised setting of a game, motivated by Littlewood (1953) Red Hat Puzzle, where the optimal choices in the game require players to employ logical and epistemological reasoning. I present a treatment where players are permitted to trade their participation rights to the game. The payo?s are furthermore calibrated such that those players who know the optimal choices in the game should value the participation rights strictly more than those who do not. However, aggregated performances in this treatment were found to be significantly lower than the control treatments where players were not permitted to trade their participation rights, providing little support for the conventional wisdom. I show that this finding could be attributed to price “bubbles” in the markets for participations rights. |
| Keywords: | Game Theory, Trading Markets, Experimental Economics, Red Hat Puzzle. |
| JEL: | C92 C72 G02 G12 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:exe:wpaper:1408&r=hpe |
| By: | Mario Amendola (Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"); Jean-Luc Gaffard (OFCE) |
| Abstract: | Novelty and hysteresis are the main engines of economic evolution. However, they are also at the origin of co-ordination issues, as the consequences of any innovative choice can never be fully expected. Thus, there is no sense in analysing economic change as an intertemporal equilibrium with rational expectations. Not only growth and fluctuations cannot be dissociated, but there is no long-term trend that would be independent from what happens in the short- term. The explicit consideration of essential evolutionary phenomena like novelty and hysteresis help a clearer understanding of some important episodes of contemporaneous economic history. The periods considered are characterized by crises and structural changes, and it is exactly when important disturbances affect the functioning of the economies that the relevant features of their behaviour come to the surface and hence the right interpretations of the phenomena taking place, with the adequate policy implications, can be formulated. |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/2pguj421ms98or9o9plc5q0m62&r=hpe |
| By: | Armenak Antinyan (Dept. of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venice) |
| Abstract: | The paper aims at studying other-regarding preferences of decision makers in the domain of losses. For this purpose the framework of the Dictator Game is adopted, with two research questions under investigation. First, how will the dictator divide the pie with an anonymous recipient, after a bi-directional loss of equal amount? Second, how will the dictator divide the pie with a poor recipient from a third world country after a bidirectional loss, where the loss of the recipient is bigger than that of the dictator? Interestingly, the data illustrate that other-regarding motives of the dictators do not vanish in any of the treatments in which losses are introduced. The results are explained from the perspective of power-dependence relationship between the dictator and the recipient (Handgraaf et al., 2008, van Dijk and Vermunt, 2000). |
| Keywords: | Dictator Games, Loss, Other-Regarding Preferences |
| JEL: | C90 D63 D64 I30 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vnm:wpdman:74&r=hpe |
| By: | Benjamin M. Friedman |
| Abstract: | I argue in this paper that one of the two forms of hitherto unconventional monetary policy that many central banks have implemented in response to the 2007 financial crisis – large-scale asset purchases, or to put the matter more generically, use of the central bank’s balance sheet as a distinct tool of monetary policy – is likely to become part of the standard toolkit of monetary policymaking in normal times as well. As intended, these purchases have lowered long-term interest rates relative to short-term rates, and lowered interest rates on more-risky compared to less-risky obligations. Moreover, their introduction fills a conceptual vacuum that has long stood at the heart of monetary policy analysis and implementation. By contrast, forward guidance on the future trajectory of monetary policy has been less successful. Public statements by central banks about their actions and intentions will no doubt continue, but transparency for the sake of transparency is not the same as the deliberate attempt to shape market expectations for purposes of achieving specific monetary policy objectives. Finally, there is a conceptual component to all this as well. In contrast to the last century or more of monetary theory, which has focused on central banks’ liabilities, the basis for the effectiveness of central bank asset purchases turns on the role of the asset side of the central bank’s balance sheet. The implications for monetary theory are profound. |
| JEL: | E52 E58 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20128&r=hpe |
| By: | Kurose, Kazuhiro; Yoshihara, Naoki |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to examine the critical arguments made by Burmeister, Samuelson, and others with respect to Sraffa (1960). In his arguments about the standard commodity, Sraffa assumed that a change in income distribution has no effect on the output level and choice of techniques. However, critics argue that the interdependence among changes in income distribution, output level, and choice of techniques should be considered in the arguments on the invariable measure of value and the linearity of income distribution. Given this debate, this paper defines a generalisation of the standard commodity by considering general economies with non-increasing returns to scale, in which such interdependence is a universal feature. Moreover, it is shown that the generalised standard commodity can serve as an invariable measure of value in those general economies. Finally, this paper characterises the necessary and sufficient condition under which the linear functional relation of income distribution is obtained in those economies. |
| Keywords: | Ricardo’s invariable measure of value, Sraffa’s standard commodity, Linear relation of income distribution |
| JEL: | B51 D30 D51 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hituec:608&r=hpe |
| By: | van Dijk, M.A. |
| Abstract: | __Abstract__ Address delivered in shortened form at the occasion of accepting the appointment as Extraordinary Professor of Financial markets on behalf of Vereniging Trustfonds EUR at the Rotterdam School of Management, on Frifay march 7, 2014. "In this address, I consider “The Social Value of Finance” from two perspectives. First, I reflect on the value for society of finance as an academic field. The recent global financial crisis has undermined the reputation of the field of finance, with the inability to foresee the crisis as one of the most prominent criticisms voiced by the media and the general public. I argue that this criticism is by and large unwarranted, primarily because the financial system has grown to be so complex that it is virtually impossible to predict the occurrence (let alone the timing and extent) of severe financial crises. However, I do believe that there are other reasons for concern about the academic field of finance. As a field, we do not get the balance right in what questions to focus on. Also, we sometimes lose ourselves in largely academic debates. One likely explanation is the “physics envy” that many economists seem to suffer from and that has led us to seek refuge in sophisticated mathematics and statistics. This development has resulted in a focus on narrow questions that can be answered quite precisely, instead of broad questions that are much harder to answer. The social value of finance as an academic field could be greater if we would be more focused on broader questions, more open minded about other fields and methodologies, and more modest about the extent of our knowledge. Second, to follow up on these aspirations, I present a new research agenda on the value for society of finance in the sense of a financial system (that is, the social value of banks and financial markets). Although the belief that financial systems fulfill an important role in society is widespread, there is surprisingly little evidence on whether and how financial systems in different countries actually fulfill their social functions. The first project in this research agenda shows that the costs to society when finance goes wrong can be large. Using data on 187 banking crises in 126 countries, I find a significant decline in average life expectancy, birth rates, and primary school enrollment, and a significant increase in poverty and adolescent fertility in the six years after the start of a banking crisis. These effects mainly stem from less-developed countries. In the second project, I propose a cross-country empirical analysis on the extent to which financial systems fulfill two of their key social functions: capital allocation (that is, channeling capital in the economy to its most productive use) and consumption smoothing (that is, allowing households to cope with income shocks). In the third project, I will examine the development and contribution to society of a considerable number of newly established stock markets (or “nascent markets”) over the past 25 years. " |
| Keywords: | social value, financial research, financial systems, financial crises, capital allocation, consumption smoothing, nascent stock markets |
| JEL: | F3 G1 G2 G01 |
| Date: | 2014–03–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ems:euriar:51323&r=hpe |
| By: | Peter Temin |
| Abstract: | I argue in this paper for more interaction between economic history and economic development. Both subfields study economic development; the difference is that economic history focuses on high-wage countries while economic development focuses on low-wage economies. My argument is based on recent research by Robert Allen, Joachim Voth and their colleagues. Voth demonstrated that Western Europe became a high-wage economy in the 14th century, using the European Marriage Pattern stimulated by the effects of the Black Death. This created economic conditions that led eventually to the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century. Allen found that the Industrial Revolution resulted from high wages and low power costs. He showed that the technology of industrialization was adapted to these factor prices and is not profitable in low-wage economies. The cross-over to economic development suggests that demography affects destiny now as in the past, and that lessons from economic history can inform current policy decisions. This argument is framed by a description of the origins of the New Economic History, also known as Cliometrics, and a non-random survey of recent research emphasizing the emerging methodology of the New Economic History. |
| JEL: | N01 N10 O11 O15 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20107&r=hpe |
| By: | Stravelakis, Nikos |
| Abstract: | It was more than four decades ago when James Tobin stressed the fallacy underlying the Latin motto "Post Hoc ergo Propter Hoc". His point was that a causal relation, back then between money and income, must rely on something more than time precedence. However, this fact has not received proper attention, contemporary literature explains the current depression from the financial crisis which preceded it and its' resolution depends on proper rules of financial regulation. This paper argues different, the current depression resulted from weak growth reflecting weak profitability. We show that under this reasoning financial crisis episodes are highly probable, serving as the trigger of depressions. The latter implies that financial assets valuation depends on a highly variable required rate of return, contrary to the postulations of modern investment theory. Highly volatile asset returns places financial markets in a world of true uncertainty as opposed to calculable risk. This shred of realism gives different meaning and limitations to financial regulation. Any regulatory policy monitoring liquidity or solvency ratios can prove insufficient as zero or weak growth turns unstable, an event usually preceded by increased amounts of speculative investments. Therefore, financial regulation should focus on what kind of assets financial intermediaries can sell and what kind of assets banks, pension funds, corporations and the broad public can hold to protect taxpayers from future bailout costs at least in part. |
| Keywords: | Crisis, Financial Crisis, Asset Valuation, Rate of Profit, Rate of Profit of Enterprise, Financialization. |
| JEL: | E11 E32 G12 |
| Date: | 2014–03–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:55944&r=hpe |
| By: | Cristina Borderías (Universidad de Barcelona, Barcelona,Spain); Pilar Pérez-Fuentes (Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Spain); Carmen Sarasúa (Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona,Barcelona,Spain) |
| Abstract: | La teoría económica ha revisado en los últimos años dos ideas básicas sobre el funcionamiento económico de las familias: que el ingreso familiar es la suma del ingreso de sus miembros (el income-pooling) y que el acceso a los recursos familiares por parte de los familiares que comparten hogar es igualitario. La desigualdad en el acceso a los recursos familiares (entre mujeres y hombres por un lado, y entre adultos, ancianos y niños por otro) se entiende como input (por ejemplo, que las mujeres coman menos y peor que los hombres), y como output (por ejemplo, que las mujeres tengan peor salud, mayor sobre-mortalidad epidémica o menor altura por estar peor alimentadas y peor atendidas médicamente). A pesar de que la desigualdad en el consumo intra-familiar es hoy objeto de análisis por parte de la Economía y los organismos económicos internacionales, apenas ha sido desarrollado por la Historia económica. En este artículo estudiamos la desigualdad en el acceso de hombres y mujeres a algunos de los recursos que consumían las familias en la España del siglo XIX: alimentos, bebidas alcohólicas, vestido y calzado. Las Topografías médicas que usamos como fuente principal sugieren que el acceso desigual a los recursos familiares tuvo un fuerte impacto en la salud y el bienestar de sus miembros. |
| Keywords: | consumo, desigualdad, economía familiar, género, bienestar. |
| JEL: | I14 I15 I31 N13 N33 R20 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:1411&r=hpe |
| By: | Ruggero Paladini |
| Abstract: | This paper describes the rebirth of the utilitarian approach, with the social welfare function a là Bentham, after the crisis due to the emergence of the ordinalist microeconomic analysis. It is shown that Vickrey in 1945 had already anticipated the themes developed earlier by Harsanyi and later by Mirrlees. After a description of Mirrlees’s work, the paper discusses the situation in which you can use personalized lump-sum taxes, showing that there are critical consequences. The paper criticizes Mankiw’s thesis against the utilitarian approach, concluding with some policy prescriptions. |
| Keywords: | utilitarian welfare function, optimal taxation, personal lump taxes |
| JEL: | B21 H21 H24 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gfe:pfrp00:0002&r=hpe |
| By: | Prof. Dr. Bernd Meyer (GWS - Institute of Economic Structures Research); Gerd Ahlert (GWS - Institute of Economic Structures Research); Prof. Dr. Hans Diefenbacher (GWS - Institute of Economic Structures Research); Roland Zieschank (GWS - Institute of Economic Structures Research); Prof. Dr. Hans Nutzinger (GWS - Institute of Economic Structures Research) |
| Abstract: | Der GWS Research Report 2013/1 "Eckpunkte eines ökologisch tragfähigen Wohlfahrtskonzepts" ist die der Abschlussbericht zum gleichnamige dreijährigen Forschungsprojekt für das Bundesumweltministerium. Das Projekt zu einem Wohlfahrtskonzept für die Umweltpolitik mit dem dahinter liegenden Grundstrukturen eines empirisch operationalisierbaren Wohlfahrtsmodells wurde gemeinsam von FFU (Berlin: Roland Zieschank), FEST (Heidelberg: Prof. Dr. Diefenbacher) and GWS (Prof. Dr. Bernd Meyer & Gerd Ahlert) bearbeitet. Es wird im Detail erläutert, welche ökonomischen, ökologischen und sozialen Zusammenhänge im Zuge einer auf nachhaltige Wohlfahrtsentwicklung ausgerichteten empirisch fundierten umweltpolitischen Beratung Berücksichtigung finden sollten. Die entsprechenden Überlegungen bilden eine wichtige Grundlage bei der künftigen Analyse umweltpolitischer Innovations- und Transformationsprozesse unter der Perspektive einer ökologisch tragfähigen Wohlfahrtsentwicklung. Obwohl im Zentrum des Vorhabens die adäquate Berücksichtigung der ökologischen Dimension innerhalb des zu entwickelnden nachhaltigen Wohlfahrtsmodells steht, werden auch zentrale Ansatzpunkte zur Berücksichtigung der sozialen Dimension aufgezeigt. |
| Keywords: | Ökologische Ziele, planetare Belastungsgrenzen, nachhaltiges Wohlfahrtsmodel, ökologisch tragfähiges Wohlfahrtskonzept, sustainable development, Green Economy |
| JEL: | B41 E17 E61 I31 P48 O44 P48 Q58 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gws:report:13-1&r=hpe |
| By: | Mullen, John |
| Keywords: | Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aare14:165862&r=hpe |
| By: | Stéphane BECUWE; Bertrand BLANCHETON |
| Abstract: | Cet article cherche à montrer que les sucres des colonies ont été sacrifiés sur l’autel de la libéralisation des échanges internationaux dans les années 1860. Afin de maintenir des recettes douanières déclinantes du fait des conséquences des accords commerciaux, parmi les produits tropicaux (cacao, café, sucre) les sucres des colonies sont les seuls à ne pas bénéficier d’une diminution des droits. |
| Keywords: | sucre, colonies, libéralisation commerciale |
| JEL: | N7 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2014-08&r=hpe |
| By: | David Juarez-Luna; Christian Ghiglino |
| Abstract: | In the present paper we uncover a novel mechanism through which a minority can gain a disproportionate power in a perfectly functioning democracy, decides on a unique redistributive instrument, the tax rate. We show that a minority characterised by a high degree of social identification may, in the presence of ideological motives, influence the policy outcome. In particular, a rise in social identification among the rich minority may be able to reduce the tax rate. Importantly, this may happen even if the minority is more ideological than the majority. Finally, we attempt an explanation of the divide in the tax rate between the US and Europe. |
| Date: | 2014–04–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esx:essedp:751&r=hpe |